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Iran’s ambassador to China, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, announced on Saturday that his country will charge new service fees to ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, an idea that Washington immediately rejected.
Speaking at the World Peace Forum in Beijing, Ambassador Fazli assured attendees that “friendly” nations that supported Iran during difficult times would receive special treatment.
The announcement complicates the initial peacetime deal between Iran and the United States, which allowed commercial ships to transit the waterway free of charge for 60 days.
Fazli stated that Iran is collaborating with Oman to establish new arrangements for the vital waterway, which forms part of Iran’s territorial waters.
He insisted the charges represent service fees for managing security, supervising vessel passage, and handling environmental impacts rather than a standard toll.
The strategic strait typically carries one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas, and Iran’s wartime blockade of the route recently sent global energy prices soaring before the current, ongoing peace negotiations began.
